ABSTRACT
The association between sleep and headache disorders was recognized well over a century ago. Early observations described the influence of sleep in both provoking and relieving headaches.1,2 For example, in 1871, Wright1 in his headache textbook observed that, among other headache triggers, ‘The causes that predispose to the occurrence of sick headache [include] insufficient sleep’ (p 32) and ‘waking from a deep sleep’ (p 94). Wright also identified headache as a likely consequence of obstructive sleep apnea or obesity hypoventilation syndrome in his description of the ‘predisposition to suffer from headaches’ related to ‘The habit of the body, age of the patient, with insufficient exercise, over-indulgence in sleep’ (pp 71-72). Such early clinical observations foretold later research concerning sleep-related headache precipitants and headache secondary to sleep-disordered breathing.
